by Green Team Captain Rachael Rewitzer
The Epic Races Tri Goddess Tri had a very muggy start to their collection of triathlons, duathlons, sprints and swims at Portage Lake, with even a small rain towards the end!
We set up our Ground Zero Waste Station near the finish line by the food tent as well as placing zero waste bins near the transition area and food tent. At the end of the event, we received a few aid station bags as well to sort and weigh.
The food tent served salad, pancakes, breakfast burritos, bananas, and ice cream sandwiches. Bearclaw Coffee also made an appearance serving coffees and smoothies in compostable cups, which was awesome to see!
I had one volunteer, Angela, and another HPR intern, Emma! Our team did an amazing job sorting everything out with almost everything being compostable and recyclable. Landfill for this race was soiled plastics and foil, nonrecyclable waxed paper for ice cream sandwiches, and tape. Salad dressing unfortunately contaminated some plastic wrap we could have otherwise recycled.
We did have some issues towards the end with it beginning to rain and our scale not working so nothing could be weighed at the event. There was also a large bag with last minute waste from an aid station, as well as later cleanup after we were packed up, all of which had to be sorted at a later date by the fabulous Jeff Jackson (not pictured below).
With a diversion rate of nearly 95 percent, I’m sure the unicorn was very pleased!
Happy Planet Running 